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Interplanetary Conflict
The Interplanetary Conflict, also known as the Interplanetary War, was a massive system war that lasted from March 2, 2160 to August 30, 2170, and was fought throughout the Sol system. For most of 2163, fighting was limited to the asteroid belt and outer planets, with Earth seemingly isolated from the conflict; both United Nations and international forces were content to let the communists and fascists slug it out. This isolation came to a brutally abrupt end with a communist-backed terrorist attack above Earth, claiming the lives of several thousand civilians. The resulting outrage brought the forces of the United Nations and all those of Earth to Mars where - as a combined fleet - they destroyed concentrated communist forces and began the process of reclaiming Mars. In an unparalleled move, the United Nations declared a policy of total war against the Koslovic Party and Frieden Movement, and created a new body to carry out this jingoist policy - the United Nations Space Command. The next seven years saw the forces of the UNSC reclaiming and restoring order to the war-torn reaches of the Sol System; from Mars to the colonies and stations of the Belt, to the fascist strongholds of Jupiter, to still contested outer planets beyond. While the fleet could secure quick, bloody victories, the various planet-side campaigns ground on for years, with the longest-lasting - Callisto - ending just a few months prior to the end of the war in 2170, serving as the official location of surrender on August 30 of the same year. The Interplanetary Conflict had lasted three-thousand, eight-hundred-and-twenty-nine days. Background While the initial secessionist attacks on UN colonial advisers caught the entire UN complex off guard, the opening shots of the conflict had been long prepared; since as early as 2140, corporate forces had been preparing for a possible conflict with the UN. These preparations quickly took form as a "Peace organization", which proved a convenient cover for military affairs. Similarly, the Koslovic Party had begun its preparations in advance of March 2160, building its space and ground assets quietly; their fleets had been in production since the 2120s, and while the United Nations was wary of this growing force, the UNDF had done little to gather intelligence on it. Jovian Crisis (March - June 2160) In March of 2160, multiple attacks were made against advisers and officers of the UNOCA; UN on-site assets proved unable to deal with their attackers immediately, and a nearby UN Navy patrol attempted to intercede. While the UNN was able to extricate UNOCA personnel, the patrol group failed to disperse or critically damage the self-styled Jovian Secessionist fleet. As the conflict entered its third month, and secessionist forces continued to prey on freighters, the UN Navy gathered a new battle group of more than thirty warships. The battle group was dispatched to Jupiter without delay, with additional vessels scheduled to arrive near Jupiter from other locations. UNN preparations were hastened all the more following an SOS from a Jovian commercial station, apparently besieged by the secessionists. Following its arrival at Jupiter in early June, the UNN battle group was quick to engage the primary secessionist fleet; additional task groups engaged secessionist forces across the various Jovian moons. With a near-insurmountable advantage in ships and armaments, the brief engagements of the fleets was more a one-sided slaughter than an actual battle. The operation proved to be decisive in crushing the secessionist movement in 2160, but was marred by the unthinkable: a nuclear detonation that tore through the besieged station and several of its standing-by freighters. Most surprising of all, the source of both the weapon and the cause of its detonation were unknown. While the destruction was not as significant as once feared, it severely damaged the credibility of the UNDF Navy, especially in its failure to protect national commercial interests. With the failure of the UNN to protect their "national interests", several member states began constructing numerous warships and building national space forces. While several nations already possessed former UNDF ships, this was the first time nations began constructing warships wholly apart from the United Nations. These fleets proved to be more a matter of national pride or power projection that actual asset protection, something that the scrambling UNDF was simply unable to fulfill. Thus, the freighters and other commercial vessels were easy prey to "new" threats - the commerce raiders of the Frieden Movement, and the quietly growing Koslovic military. Rain Forest Wars (December 2161 - February 2163) The conflict that swept across South America and into Central America, and would come to be know only as the "Rain Forest Wars" started simply, with a few isolated skirmishes between Frieden movement personnel and Koslovic paramilitary forces in Northwestern Brazil. Frieden military personnel, with ample support of fascist paramilitary units, began to seek out and actively skirmish with Koslovic encampments across Western Brazil; however, Koslovic positions stretched from as far south as Mar del Plata and as far north as the Yucatan peninsula. It was from these camps and collectives that the Koslovics called for reinforcements, bringing first hundreds, then thousands of Koslovics into the conflict; while both sides began actively pulling worldwide forces into the fold, the Frieden movement found itself outmatched in Northwestern Brazil. In order to rectify this, the Frieden military expanded the focus of their attacks, reaching south into Bolivia and Paraguay, west into Peru, and north into Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana. With the conflict spreading farther across South America, and Brazilian internal forces unable to deal with the Koslovics or the Frieden Movement, the UN Department of Peacekeeping started multiple Peacekeeping Mission forces in several countries, with observation groups sent into countries not yet involved. Initially hoped to be a conclusion to the ongoing hostilities, these missions proved to be a temporary stopgap, and brief one at that. Even as the conflict began spreading northwards across Central America, Frieden military forces made a serious of lightning attacks on Koslovic positions in the northern Yucatan Peninsula; these attacks, while no more bloody than those already ongoing across South America, brought the Unified Republic of North America into the conflict. The URNA response was prepared and carried out with brutal efficiency: the Yucatan Peninsula was declared to be under attack and evacuated immediately, displacing thousands of civilians, followed by an unrestrained retaliation against both the Koslovics and Frieden Movement. The brutal North American response in the Yucatan did nothing to diminish the slaughter in the south, but did serve to underline the utter ineffectiveness of UN Peacekeeping missions. With civilian casualties continuing to increase, criticism of the UN reached an all-time high: its fleet couldn't protect, and neither could its peacekeepers. Usually put off by outright brutality, public opinion had shifted in favor of the URNA approach - the focused destruction of the enemy and a quick end to combat by any means necessary. With URNA military forces building up on the Mexican-Guatemalan border and the situation in South America still unstable, the UN Security Council came to a revolutionary decision and pushed it through without delay. Within hours of its passing, the United Nations Army was brought into existence. The UNA began by incorporating already existing Peacekeeper units, but also forces belonging to the nations of; the Unified Republic of North America, the People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and the members of the European Union. With the largest combined army of the twenty-second century assembling, and naval forces from around the world closing in on South America, the United Nations Defense Force authorized the immediate intervention by its newly created ground force into the conflict. With additional personnel, equipment, and vehicles continuing to join the increasingly massive force, the UNDF, with assistance of the MSC, created the Unified Ground Command to manage the UNDF Army. The United Nations Army, or UNA, began a methodical advance into the Koslovic-Frieden battleground: URNA troops, aircraft, and armor forging south through first Belize and Guatemala, then Honduras and El Salvador, and finally into Nicaragua; European forces gathering first in the West Indies, then landing and advancing into the interiors of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and the northernmost coastline of Brazil; African, Middle Eastern, and Indian forces landing along the main coastline of Brazil, and linking up with both European and South American armies; Thai, Indonesia, and Australian forces making landfall in Argentina and moving north; and Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Japanese forces landing in Peru and Ecuador. As UN Army forces steadily advanced, Koslovic and Frieden military forces wilted, with many slipping away, disappearing quietly into the civilian populace and eventually escaping South America altogether. Others, determined to pursue their opponents to the end, remained; the slaughter in the state of Amazonas reached in zenith only weeks before UNA forces finally penetrated the devastated region. Although South and Central America were completely in UN control by November of 2162, the devastation done would last more than thirty years. And while the UN had decisively ended direct combat operations on Earth, the Koslovics and Frieden Movement remained entrenched across the other planets of the Sol system, still diametrically opposed and unwilling to consider negotiations. One possibility of peaceful negotiations turned bloody immediately: when a splinter faction of the Freiden Movement, calling themselves the Neo-Frieden, attempted to contact the United Nations on Luna, mainstream elements attacked them for their 'treachery', resulting in a series of skirmishes collectively known as the Battle of Delambre. Attempted deescalation (February - March 2163) The System War of 2163 was, until August, primarily a Communist-Fascist affair. On the twenty-sixth of August, however, a Koslovic affiliated armed merchant cruiser destroyed a civilian station over Earth with a nuclear device, killing more than 7,000 civilians. While the freighter was obliterated by responding International and UNDF forces, its destruction did little to soothe or calm the now revenge-hungry people of Earth. Following a thorough investigation - one that laid blame for the atrocity squarely on the Koslovics - both UN and international forces prepared for the much-anticipated move against the Communists. Renewed hostilities (March - November 2163) Assault on Mars (December 2163) Charged with arresting key officials and officers implicated in the attack, the Combined Fleet traveled to Mars, and engaged Koslovic forces both above and on the planet in the largest battle of both the System War and the Interplanetary Conflict - the now legendary Battle of Mars. Interplanetary War The Interplanetary War officially began on January 1, 2164, with a first-ever formal declaration of war by the United Nations, which charged the newly created United Nations Space Command Defense Force with the complete liberation of all celestial bodies, satellites, and stations of the Sol system, to be accomplished by any means necessary. To accomplish this, the UNSC launched a titanic construction and recruiting campaign, bringing hundreds of new ships into its fleets and millions of volunteers into its ranks. Initial offensives were launched on Earth, Luna, and Mars, with the intent of driving any remaining Koslovic or Frieden forces from the inner system; in the case of the former, this was essentially a policing action. The latter two, however, were brutal affairs in their own right, taking most of the year and claiming thousands of lives. Ultimately successful nevertheless, the UNSC closed 2164 having secured the inner system and began a massive offensive throughout the Belt. This new offensive was to last until 2167, though it largest engagement - the Battle of Ceres - occurred in 2165. Inner system offensives (2164 - 2166) Outer system offensives (2166-2170) Endgame operations (2170) Aftermath Following the formal surrender of the armed forces of both the Koslovic Party and the Frieden Movement on August 30, 2170 on the Jovian moon of Callisto, the Interplanetary Conflict concluded three thousand, eight hundred and twenty-nine days after it began. Impact The Interplanetary Conflict dramatically changed the course of human history; when it began on March 7, 2160, Humanity was a body of sovereign nations loosely united by general agreement, with no real central government. When the it ended on August 30, 2170, the Unified Earth Government officially brought the whole of humanity into one being - a centralized united government, and a complete, well-defined and fully-staffed military to defend it and its principles.